Turks drink çay (tea) every day, all day. For Turkish people conversations without tea are like a night sky without the moon. The tea culture in Turkey is much less complicated than in Britain or Japan. Tea is poured into lovely little tulip-shaped glasses and is hot, dark red and strong. It is consumed without milk…. Read more »

Topkapı Palace is the oldest and also the most Ottoman of all Turkish palaces. It is different from palaces in the rest of Europe. It reminds you of a tent camp of nomads built of stone, as the palace is not a single large structure like Buckingham Palace or Versailles, but a collection of relatively… Read more »

Planning a trip is like solving a puzzle. It involves putting together different pieces of curated information about a city and making the right choices that will satisfy your unique interests and curiosities. This indeed can be said for literally any city. However when you are planning a trip to a city that sits on… Read more »

Istanbul was the second city in Europe – after London – that had an underground rapid transit system constructed. When it opened in 1874 it got the name “The Metropolitan Railway of Constantinople From Galata to Pera”. It is an impressive name for the shortest ‘metro line’ in the world: it has only one stop!… Read more »

They are back! All over Istanbul at bars & restaurants: plants in little pots. I love their aroma. Basil emits its aroma without crushing the leaves, and they are great to control mosquitoes; they hate basil aroma. To keep the mosquitoes away from your body, rub a handful of crushed basil leaves on your skin…. Read more »